The Burgess Shale and its Place in Geological Time

Geological time is exceptionally hard to fathom. If you are like me, you probably have difficulty conceiving of a million years. The Earth is currently 4.543 billion years old. While this number is much smaller than the federal debt of most developed nations, it is still enormous. To help comprehend such large numbers we often resort to analogy. Below is a comparison of the age of the Earth to one standard 365-day calendar year. Each day represents about 12.45 million years. If you multiply 12.45 million years by 365 you will get 4.543 billion years – the age of the Earth. In this Geological Time – Calendar Date analogy the following significant events occur (Note that the lines in the following table may not display correctly on a tablet or mobile device):